Books about the Second World War are part of our culture. The works created by the participants and witnesses of the war years became a kind of chronicle, which reliably conveyed the stages of the selfless struggle of the Soviet people against fascism. Books about the Second World War - the topic of this article.
The peculiarity of military prose
The Great Patriotic War ... It became the main and inevitable theme in the work of Russian writers and poets of the second half of the twentieth century. But, like any other genre of literature, Soviet military prose is divided into several stages of development. Books about the Second World War, which were written in the forties, differ significantly from the works created twenty, thirty or more years after Victory Day.
The literature of the war years is characterized by an abundance of lyrical and romantic elements. During this period, poetry was particularly developed. The tragedy of the Soviet people was portrayed abstractly. The fate of a single person was assigned a not so important role.
At the end of the fifties, other trends were observed in military prose. The hero of the book about the Second World War was a man with a difficult fate. Behind his shoulders is a tragedy that will forever remain with him. The authors depicted not only the Great Victory, but also the life of an ordinary person. It became less pathos, more realism.
Mikhail Sholokhov
In June 1941, an ordinary Soviet man believed that victory over the invaders would come very soon. A year has passed. Belarusian cities and villages were covered with ashes. Residents of Ukraine have experienced grief, which turned out to be incomparable with anything. The soldiers, natives of Leningrad, no longer believed that they would see their relatives alive. The first feeling that sprouted in the soul of a Soviet man was hatred.
In 1942, Mikhail Sholokhov worked as a war correspondent. Then the story “The Science of Hate” was created. The theme of this work was the evolution of the human soul in war. Sholokhov's story is about how a civilian is gradually changing, and all his thoughts focus on the desire for revenge and all-consuming hatred.
“They Fought for Their Homeland” is a novel that Sholokhov did not complete. The first chapters were written during the war. Others twenty years later. The last parts of the Sholokhov burned.
The heroes of the novel are ordinary people. They fought for their homeland, but at the same time did not cease to miss their relatives, rejoice and be upset by simple things and even joke. The most difficult test for them was not battles and battles, but the eyes of the Russian women who escorted them during the retreat.
The story "The fate of man"
War is the worst in the history of mankind. People feel its terrible power even after victory. The story "The fate of man" was written in 1956. Volleys fired long ago, shells ceased to burst. But the echoes of the war felt every Soviet person. The inhabitants of the country were entirely people with a crippled fate. This was also Andrei Sokolov - the hero of the works of Sholokhov.
The fate of man is unpredictable. He can lose everything: the house, family, everything that makes up the meaning of his life. Especially if war intervenes in this fate. The biography of the main character in the story of Sholokhov may not be entirely true. During the war, a man who was held captive ended up in a camp. Sokolov safely returned to the ranks of the Red Army. But there is an undeniable truth in the story. And it consists in the fact that a person can overcome grief and despair only when love is present in his life. After the loss of loved ones, Sokolov found the strength to shelter a homeless boy. And that saved them both.
Boris Polevoy
Among the Soviet soldiers and officers were real heroes. Books were dedicated to them, films were made about them. “The Tale of a Real Man” by Boris Polevoy is a work about the legendary pilot Alexei Maresyev. The biography of this person is known to every student. His feat became an example not only for soldiers, but also for civilians. The courage of the hero, who is dedicated to "The Tale of a Real Man" by Boris Polevoy, is especially admired. After all, this man made several dozen flights after he became disabled.
Yuri Bondarev
"Battalions ask for fire" Yuri Bondarev - one of the first works in which there was no pathos. In the novel there is a bare truth about the war, there is an analysis of the human soul. Such features were uncharacteristic of the prose of the forties. Bondarev's work was written in 1957.
In the postwar period, authors avoided topics such as the contradiction between purpose and means in their work. If in the story of Sholokhov, which was discussed above, the characters were either negative or positive, then Bondarev is not so clear. There is no white and black in his novel. But still, despite the trials, the heroes remain faithful to their duty. None of them become a traitor.
Novel "Hot Snow"
Yuri Bondarev was a gunner during the war. He traveled from Stalingrad to Czechoslovakia. “Hot Snow” is a work of art dedicated to events that the author knew firsthand. The heroes of the novel by Bondarev die as a result of a long battle near Stalingrad. It is worth saying that the works of participants in the Second World War have not only artistic, but also historical value. Reliability is in "Hot Snow". Tragic truth permeated the novel "Life and Fate."
Vasily Grossman
This writer began his work with short stories about the Red Army. The culmination of his literary journey was a novel in which the author emphasized the similarity of two tyrants of the XX century: Stalin and Hitler. For which he suffered. The main book, Life and Fate, was banned.
There are several storylines in this novel. One of them is dedicated to the defense of the legendary Pavlov’s house. The battles in the novel of this writer are shown realistically. Grossman depicted the death of a Soviet soldier simply, without unnecessary pathos. And the same picture was created of the deaths of civilians at the hands of the Nazis.
During the war, Grossman worked as a war correspondent. He witnessed the battle of Stalingrad. And somewhere far away, in a small Ukrainian city, his mother died. The last days she spent in the Jewish ghetto. This grief remained forever in the soul of the writer. The theme of his post-war work was the fate of millions of deaths in concentration camps and Jewish ghettos. Perhaps that is why he so soulfully conveyed the thoughts and feelings of a man who is dying of suffocation in a gas chamber.
Vladimir Bogomolov
“In August the forty-fourth” is a novel that covers the events that took place on the liberated Belarusian land. Enemy agents and disparate groups of German soldiers remained on this territory. On their account there were many crimes. In addition, the task of each underground organization was to collect information about the Soviet army. One SMERSH counterintelligence group searched for these agents.
The novel was written in the seventies. It was based on genuine events. Bogomolov's work was the first of those that opened the veil of secrecy of the Soviet special services.
Boris Vasiliev
One of the most striking works on the military theme is the story "And the Dawns Here Are Quiet." More than one film has been shot based on Vasiliev’s work. The uniqueness of the story, written in the late sixties, lies in the fact that its heroes are not experienced and experienced fighters.
Vasiliev created five unique female images. The heroines of the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” were girls who were just starting to live. One of them dreamed of parents whom she did not know. Another wore silk underwear in a duffel bag. The third was in love with the foreman. But they all died heroically. Each of them made an invaluable contribution to the Great Victory.
The fortress did not fall ...
In 1974, Vasiliev’s novel “Not Listed” was published. This book can make an extremely strong impression. “A person can be killed, but not defeated” - this phrase has become perhaps the key in the work.
On June 21, no one believed that war could begin. Any talk on this subject was considered a provocation. The next day, at four in the morning, enemy shells thundered at the Brest Fortress.
Nikolai Pluzhnikov, the hero of Vasiliev’s novel, was a young inexperienced officer. But the first days of the war radically changed it. He became a hero. And this heroism is astounding because Pluzhnikov fought almost alone. He spent nine months in the fortress, periodically firing shots at German soldiers and officers. Most of the time he was alone. I did not receive letters from home. Did not communicate with comrades. But he survived. Pluzhnikov left the fortress only when the cartridges ran out, and news came of the liberation of Moscow.
The prototype of the story of Vasiliev was one of the Soviet soldiers who did not stop the battle until the beginning of the forty-second year. The walls of the Brest Fortress keep a memory of their feat. On one of them, it is scratched with a blade: “I am dying, but I do not give up. November 20, 1941 ”.
Alexander Kapler
The war claimed the lives of twenty-five million Soviet people. How would their fate be if they survived? This was written by Alexander Kapler in the novel "Two of the Twenty-Five Million."
The work deals with the fate of young people who went through the war together. The long-awaited Victory Day is coming. Then comes peace time. But the postwar years are not clear. The country is destroyed. There is need and hunger everywhere. The heroes of the Kapler story go through all the difficulties together. And here comes the ninth of May of the seventy-fifth year. Heroes are no longer young. They have a big friendly family: children, grandchildren. Suddenly everything disappears ...
In this work, the author used an artistic technique that had not previously been used in military prose. At the end of the work, the action is transferred to the distant war years. In the Adzhimushkay catacombs, which were described at the beginning of the story, almost no one survived in 1942.
Heroes of Kapler died. Their lives did not take place, as did the fate of twenty-five million Soviet people.
Books about the Great Patriotic War should be read by everyone. After all, the events that are displayed in them are part of the story.